


san fransokyo

by tillsunrise



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:54:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24751174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tillsunrise/pseuds/tillsunrise
Summary: Riko assembles his perfect court with Kevin, Nathaniel, Jean, and Andrew for the Olympics. They're the kind of broken that doesn't heal.
Kudos: 16





	san fransokyo

**#1**

“You are destined for greatness,” they tell Riko Moriyama. He hears it; he says it; he believes it. He believes in it stronger than he has ever believed in anything else, more than he believes in Kevin. He believes it so strongly he rekindles the hope he can be a Moriyama again. 

And it’s possible, too, if everything goes according to plan. Quests for perfection come at the cost of ethics and happiness. And lives will be destroyed in his ambition to claw his way back to the main branch and the inner circle. Riko could care less. He assembles his perfect court. 

**#2**

They say nothing to Kevin. Instead, they plant the seed of doubt within Riko’s head that Kevin may one day surpass him. Words swim around Kevin’s head, hopes unsung and grief unresolved. He almost believes that he can survive with Exy alone, the sport his mother abandoned him to, for the rest of his life. 

“Mine,” whispers Riko to him in the locker room one night after practice at the new Olympic facility and Kevin kisses everything goodbye, doomed to be lesser forever. By now, Riko is his only tether to the sport. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All of it. 

**#3**

Nathaniel is sharp and caustic. For all intents and purposes, he should be dead by now but somehow isn't. He has a terrible penchant for talking back and doing stupid things, but he's horribly effective as a backliner. He understands loyalty; it's been both beaten into and out of him. They tell him to throw a match, and he shows them how they can win. He’s a firecracker. He'd crush his own hand in a skiing accident just to spite whoever. 

When they bore of squabbling with the other world teams and go back to the premier league, he’s the wild card they want.

**#4**

Jean plays at true neutral. He never interferes to mediate, but just his presence in the room is enough to balance. Balance, as in reminding everyone of the hierarchy. Balance, as in reminding everyone to not make his mistakes. Balance, as in the most broken to the point where everyone has to tiptoe around him, because they know he’s about to snap. The chains from his morality scales are weak and broken, faintly heard from where he drowns. He drowns everywhere. 

Once again, Jean is nothing. Even on the Olympic court, he was always destined for nothing. 

**#5**

Andrew has nothing and no one. There's something very empty about him, but he won't share quite what made him the way he is. There isn't anything in the world that could make him care. He's the other half of the line that crushes his own hand from pure spite. He isn’t drawn to anyone in the court at all. Really, he's just here out of a savage, half-formed thought to prove Riko wrong. 

That should be enough to satisfy him.


End file.
